Quitting smoking is difficult for everyone, including future moms. A study on the dependencies of the University of Buffalo showed that managing negative emotions could help with the purpose.

Research involved 70 pregnant smokers and intend to quit. Many of them were going through a difficult time, due to economic insecurity and unemployment. Women have noted all the stress episodes, reporting how many times they had smoked in those occasions. It turned out that negative emotions were making it harder to quit smoking.

Half of the women underwent psychological therapy alone, with tips on improving their lifestyle. The other half underwent psychological therapy, combined with a treatment for emotion management. The therapists urged the participants to imagine stressful situations, helping them overcome the negative moment without smoking.

Compared with the patients in the first group, the second group women who stopped smoking were many more. 23% of them remained "smoke-free" for two months after the start of treatment against 0% of the first group. Even the women of the second group who have not stopped, have however reduced the daily number of cigarettes.

Source: buffalo.edu